Minecraft as a model for gamification in teacher training.

This session was led by Vance Stevens who is  the founding father of the webheads and is still very active in their fields. I must admit I have always thought of Minecraft as 'kid's stuff' and never been really interested so it will be interesting for me to see what Vance has to say about the topic. (It was also a joint presentation with learning2gether!)


First of all he talked a little about the learning organisations including this one run by Nellie, also learning2gether and EVO and then he went on to talk about cMOOCs and xMOOCS. (There is a basic run down here! ) and then he gave us the following slide.

He then moved onto the EVO Minecraft MOOC which is due to run in January 2016 - EVO online 2016 and started talking about gamification which apparently is quite complex and needs to be experienced to understand it properly. He also stated that gamification is not for everyone.

In the Minecraft MOOC, teachers are called guides because the principle is that they use their knowledge to guide other participants on their learning journey. Minecraft as a model for learning helps people gain experience and join a community. He talked about the difficulties of becoming a guide/teacher in Minecraft and showed us the following slide which shows the stages from beginner to expert.

 
The biggest initial problem is to find a community because most communities are school-based and therefore not open to everyone, Vance's solution was to open his own Minecraft community to encourage teachers to learn the game by being in the game on EVO online. They had fun playing the game and learning as they went along.

The second challenge is creating and finding a place to play on and they got round this when one of the members set up a server on a university site. They learned how to create, collaborate and survive. They actually learn by doing in this virtual world, Vance told us about one participant Filip (who is 11 years old) who created rabbits and then showed the other members how to form bows and arrows so they could shoot the rabbits in order to survive. You also need to have shelter at night because creatures which can eat you come out and they will eat you if you don't have shelter or a means of survival.

It appears that there are two modes. Creative mode and Survival mode, creative mode is where you make things and survival mode is where you play.

There was a badge for survival and they also used the things they learned in 2015 to take forward to 2016.

He told us how Filip (the son of teacher Marijana Smolcec) actually achieved quite a high standard of English by using Minecraft, using the videos and the game to create things. Learning in action and they both contributed to this article on Minecraft - tesl-ej minecraft

Maha asked in the chat exactly what gamification was and Vance gave us the image that the difference between games and gamification is that games is like sitting at home watching the football and gamification is actually playing football in the stadium. In gamification you are immersed in the game complete with the rewards for achievements rather than taking part from the outside so it is a more involving experience.

Having seen this webinar, I now have a better idea about the use of Minecraft in education and there obviously is a place for it. For me personally, sorry Vance, I think I will pass on this.